GIFT   OF 


/0~ 


THE   SOCIETY  OF  MEDICAL 
JURISPRUDENCE 


nrorporated   18M 


PROCEEDINGS:  NOVEMBER  14,  1921 


Paper:  "The  Employment  of  Intelligence 
Tests  in  the  Control  of  Immigration" 

By  G.  Alfred  Lawrence,  M.  D. 


JJ  v  6  5'£>  g: 


The  Society  of  Medical  Jurisprudence 

Officers.  trustees. 

NATHAN    B.    VAN    ETTEN,   M.D.,     OSCAR    W.    EHRHORN, 
President,  Chairman, 

Tremont    and    Anthony    Aves.  15   William   Street. 

CHARLES  OAKES,  L.  HOWARD  MOSS,  M.D., 

Vice-President,  Secretary, 

2  Rector  Street.  Richmond  Hill,  New  York  City. 

CHARLES   P.   BLANK \.  JOHN   C.   WEST 

Treasurer, 

140   Nassau    Street.  ALFRED   E.    OMMEN 

L.  HOWARD  MOSS    M.D.,  GEO-    f"    GEXUXG 

SeRiceimo%nd  Hill,  New  Vork  City.     THOMAS    C.    CHALMERS,    M.D. 

ERNEST    E.    SMITH,    M.D. 
EDWARD  E.   HICKS.  M.D.. 

Corresponding   Secretary,  FLAVIUS  PACKER    M.D. 

1168    Dean    Street. 

Brooklyn,   N.    Y.  GEORGE  L.  BRODHEAD,  M.D. 

Proceedings  of  the  32oth  regular  meeting,  held  at 
the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine,  November  14, 
1921. 

The  minutes  of  the  3i9th  regular  meeting  were  read 
and  approved  ;  an  abstract  of  the  362nd  regular  meet- 
ing of  the  Board  of  Trustees  was  read  for  informa- 
tion. 

Election  to  Honorary  Membership : 

Major-General  Leonard  Wood. 
Ejection  to  Memership  : 
•»  Samuel   Wolbarst,   Esq.,   277   Broadway,   N.   Y.   City. 

Stephen  Perham  Tewett.  M.D..  1200  Madison  Ave.,  N  Y. 
City. 

Harry  X.   French,  Esq.,  31   Nassau  Street,  X.  Y.   City. 
Ernest  M.  Vaughan.  M.D..  102  Fenimore  Street,  Brooklyn. 
Samuel  Parnass,  M.D.,  1218  Hcrkimer  Street,  Brooklyn. 
Xnmination  of  Officers: 
For  President:  Charles  Oakes,  Esq.* 

John  Kirtland  Clark,  Esq. 

For  Vice-President:   Thomas   C.    Chalmers,   M.D. 
For  Treasurer:    Charles   P.    Blaney,   Esq.* 

John  MacKinlay  Wight,  Esq. 

For  Corresponding  Secretary:  Edward  E.  Hicks,  M.D. 
For  Recording  Secretary:  L.  Howard  Moss,  M.D. 

*  Withdrew. 

3 


Trustees 
r~ 

Oscar  W.  Ehrhorn,  Esq.  Xathan  B.  Van  Etten,  M.D. 

Alfred  E.  Ommen,  Esq.  Ernest  Ellsworth   Smith,  M.D. 

John  C.  West,  Esq.  Flavins  Packer,  M.D. 

Walter  J.  Carlin,  Esq.  George   L.   Brodhead,   M.D. 

Scientific  Session: 

I.    Paper:  "The  Employment  of  Intelligence  Tests 
in  the  Control  of  Immigration." 

By  G.  Alfred  Lawrence,  M.D. 

II.  Discussion  by  Phyllis  Blanchard,  Ph.D.,  Smiith 
Ely  Jelliffe,  M.D.,  J.  J.  Stenquist,  Esq.,  Antonio 
Stella,  M.  D.,  Dr.  Lazarus. 


\Vithdrew. 


[Reprint  from  THE  MEDICAL  TIMES,  March,  1922.] 


THE     EMPLOYMENT     OF     INTELLIGENCE 
TESTS  IN  THE  CONTROL  OF 

IMMIGRATION.* 
G.  ALFRED  LAWRENCE,  LL.B.,  Ph.D.,  M.D., 

.MAJOR,    MEDICAL   RESERVE   CORPS,   U.    S.    A.;    FORMERLY   ADJUNCT 

PROFESSOR    NERVOUS    AND    MENTAL    DISEASES,    NEW    YORK 

POST-GRADUATE  MEDICAL  SCHOOL  AND   HOSPITAL, 

New  York. 

In  the  presentation  of  this  subject  I  wish  to  first 
make  mention  of  various  factors  pertaining  to  the 
admission  of  aliens  or  foreigners  into  the  United 
States;  secondly,  some  mention  of  the  extent  of 
crime,  insanity,  mental  deficiency,  educational  retarda- 
tion, vocational  inefficiency,  hereditary  abnormality  and 
economic  dependency  in  our  midst  and  the  large  part  the 
foreign-born  element  in  our  Nation  play  in  this  difficult 
problem ;  thirdly,  the  rapidly  increasing  extent  to  which 
intelligence  tests  are  being  employed  to  assist  in  solving 
such  problems;  and  finally,  the  applicability  of,  and  the 
employment  of  suitably  selected  intelligence  tests  in  a 
proper  manner  by  well-qualified  and  experienced  pschia- 
trists  and  psychologists  as  a  prophylactic  measure  and  as 
an  aid  in  the  solution  of  our  immigration  problem,  by 
excluding  a  still  higher  percentage  of  undesirable  aliens 
than  by  present  methods  alone. 

It  is  of  vital  importance  to  admit  only  those  of 
sufficient  intelligence,  who,  at  their  vocational  level,  can 
become  good  citizens  and  carry  on  successfully  in  their 
new  environment  and  thus  become  an  economic  asset 
and  not  a  liability  or  expense  to  the  community  at  large. 

The  maudling  sentiment  that  America  should  receive 
with  open  arms  the  poor  and  oppressed  of  all  the  other 
nations  of  the  earth,  regardless  of  their  mental  or  phys- 
ical qualifications  should  give  way  to  the  more  sane  and 
human  view  that  only  normal  units,  both  physically  and 
mentally,  can  make  for  a  normal  healthy  efficient  body 
politics  j>r  virile  nation,  and  only  such  should  be  allowed 
to  become  prospective  candidates  for  citizenship  of  our 
great  Commonwealth. 

According  to  the  latest  issued  annual  report  of  the 
Commissioner  General  of  Immigration  to  the  Secretary 
of  Labor,  33,880,104  immigrants  passed  through  regu- 

*Read   before   the   Society   of   Medical   Jurisprudence,   a*   the   New   York 
Academy    of    Medicine,    November    14th,    1921. 


lar  channels  of  our  Bureau  of  Immigration  from  the 
year  1776  to  1820  inclusive.  Millions  of  them  and  their 
descendants  make  up  a  large  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  the  United  States  today.  During  the  year  1920,  430,- 
ooi  entered  the  United  States  for  permanent  residence. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  191,595  non-immigrant  aliens 
entered  the  United  States  for  temporary  stay — on  busi- 
ness, travel,  etc.  Furthermore,  933,081  alien  seamen 
came  into  various  ports  during  the  same  period — making 
a  grand  total  of  1,566,452  aliens  of  the  above  classes  en- 
tering into  the  United  States  for  permanent  or  tempor- 
ary residence.  The  largest  incidence  of  permanent  ^im- 
migration to  our  shores  occurred  during  the  year  1907 
when  1,285,349  aliens  entered  the  United  States  for 
permanent  residence  in  addition  to  those  of  the  non- 
immigrant and  sailor  alien  classes,  11,795  of  those  seek- 
ing admission  to  our  country  during  1920  were  debarred 
for  various  reasons — 5,297  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
likely  to  become  a  public  charge,  1,639  under  the  illit- 
eracy test,  1,241  stowaways,  1,164  contract  laborers,  541 
due  to  loathsome  or  contagious  diseases,  355  criminals, 
353  physical  defectives,  who,  owing  to  such  disability 
were  unable  to  make  a  living,  216  insane  and  other  men- 
tal defects,  185  prostitutes  or  guilty  of  other  immoral 
practices,  291  children  under  16  years  of  age  unaccom- 
panied by  parents,  60  Chinese,  56  Japanese  and  27  na- 
tives of  other  barred  Asiatic  zones.  Of-  the  216  mental 
cases,  9  were  idiots,  20  imbeciles,  49  feeble  minded,  83 
insane  and  epileptic  and  38  constitutional  psychopathic 
inferior.  There  were  61  cases  of  tuberculosis,  8  chronic 
alcoholics  and  i  alien  enemy  refused  admission. 

Two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty-two  aliens 
were  deported  after  admission,  including  some  1,500 
from  insane  institutions  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States, 
leaving  some  1,500  additional  insane  in  these  institu- 
tions to  be  deported  at  a  later  date.  Russians,  however, 
cannot  be  deported  at  present.  In  addition  to  the  1,500 
insane  patients,  there  were  also  deported  after  entry 
148  sexually  immoral,  292  anarchists,  155  criminals.  In 
these  three  latter  classes,  deportation  can  be  effected 
without  regard  to  length  of  residence,  whereas  in  the 
case  of  aliens  who  fall  into  distress  here  or  need  public 
aid  from  causes  arising-  subsequent  to  their  arrival,  they 
may  be  deported  at  Government  expense  only  up  to  3 
years  after  landing.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  lat- 


ter  procedure,  even  if  effected,  involves  a  considerable 
force  of  assistants  and  much  expense,  as  these  individ- 
uals are  scattered  all  over  the  United  States. 

• 

The  illiteracy  test — ability  to  either  read  or  write  some 
language — went  into  effect  in  May,  1917,  and  since  then 
5,083  aliens  have  been  excluded  and  704  expelled  after 
entry.  During  1920,  however,  15,094  aliens  unable  to 
read  or  write  were  admitted  under  various  exceptions  to 
this  literacy  test — mostly  in  order  to  join  relatives  al- 
ready in  this  country.  It  was  estimated  that  1,617,018 
aliens  were  admitted  into  the  United  States  during  the 
period  from  1908  to  1918  that  would  have  been  excluded 
had  these  tests  been  in  effect  during  that  period. 

There  are  some  15  principal  ports  of  entry  by  which 
the  major  portion  of  aliens  enter  the  United  States,  in- 
cluding New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Norfolk,  Jacksonville,  New  Orleans,  Galveston,  San 
Francisco  and  Seattle. 

At  Ellis  Island  in  the  harbor  of  New  York  the  ma- 
jor portion  of  all  aliens  enter  the  United  States. 

In  1920,  328,269  aliens  applied  for  permanent  entry, 
of  which  325,799  were  admitted,  and  1,722  debarred. 
Of  uielatter,  764  were  stowaways,  324  illiterate,  264 
vagrants,  beggars  or  paupers  likely  to  become  a  public 
charge,  170  tubercular  or  having  loathsome  or^Sanger- 
ous  contagious  diseases,  70  were  mental  defectives  in- 
cluding insanity,  86  physically  defective,  41  contract 
laborers,  and  the  balance  under  miscellaneous  statutory 
charges.  About  60  per  cent  arrive  in  the  steerage  and 
40  per  cent  in  cabin,  and  most  of  the  latter  enter  tem- 
porarily: 

Each  immigrant  is  examined  in  line  for  a  fraction  of  a 
minute  by  a  medical  officer,  then  sent  to  the  stripping 
rooms,  where  partially  undressed,  he  or  she  receives  a 
rapid  general  physical  examination  and  if  suspected  of 
mental  defect  is  sent  to  the  psychiatrists  for  further  ex- 
amination. Some  800  or  900  on  an  average  are  thus 
examined  daily  at  Ellis  Island  at  present. 

A  few  months  after  our  entry  into  the  world  war,  on 
October  i6th,  1918,  an  Act  was  passed  by  Congress 
empowering  the  deportations  of  anarchists,  communists 
and  kindred  classes  and  as  a  result  5,600  warrants  were 
issued  and  798  aliens  under  this  class  were  deported  and 
501  others  await  deportation.  During  the  present  year, 


Congress  has  further  restricted  immigration  so  that  at 
the  present  time  only  3  per  cent  of  the  foreign  born  of 
any  country  now  represented  in  the  United  States  can 
enter  in  any  one  year — in  other  words,  if  there  were 
100,000  Spaniards  in  the  United  States  on  January  I, 
1921,  only  3,000  additional  could  enter  during  the  fol- 
lowing 12  months. 

Of  the  430,000  immigrants  entering  the  United  States 
in  1920,  106,630  remained  in  New  Yoik,  or  approxi- 
mately 25  per  cent  of  the  total  number. 

Past  Assistant  Surgeon  H.  Valentine  Wildman,  Jr., 
United  States  Public  Health  Service,  stationed  at  Ellis 
Island,  N.  Y.,  in  a  recent  article  entitled  "Mental  Exam- 
inations of  Aliens  and  their  Bearing  on  the  Potential 
Military  Strength  of  the  Nation,"  among  other  things 
states:  "Movements  of  population  from  one  country  to 
another  are  mainly  due  to  economic  causes.  They  take 
place  usually  from  the  more  densely  to  the  less  densely 
populated  countries,  from  those  of  lower  to  those  of 
higher  standards  of  life,  and  from  those  of  lesser  to  those 
of  greater  economic  opportunities.  It  is  all  the  more 
important  therefore  that  the  arriving  alien  should  be 
physically  and  mentally  fit  to  compete  with  others  in  his 
new  environment  and  thereby  develop  a  spirit  of  willing- 
ness to  render  public  service  in  time  of  need.  Public 
sentiment  in  the  United  States  appears  to  favor  selec- 
tion rather  than  restriction  of  immigration. 

The  experience  during  the  war,  however,  plainly  indi- 
cates that  in  the  interest  of  national  safety  it  must  be 
assimilated  both  in  character  and  numbers.  Although 
physical  disability  may  give  rise  to  dependency,  it  is  only 
a  temporary  burden,  but  insanity  and  mental  -defect 
cause  perpetual  and  increasing  burdens  to  society.  Even- 
tually the  methods  of  'detecting  mental  defect  should 
be  made  so  rapid  of  application  that  they  would  be  used 
in  all,  and  in  reality  be,  the  measure  for  admission  rather 
than  any  literacy  requirement."  This  latter  statement 
is  directly  in  line  with  our  own  views,  excepting  that 
we  believe  that  the  best  methods  now  in  vogue,  with 
modifications  to  apply  to  the  definite  problem  in  hand, 
should  be  introduced  at  once  as  an  adjunct  to  the  present 
methods  of  examination  and  as  time  goes  on  undoubt- 
edly simple  standards  of  rapid  application  will  gradu- 
ally be  evolved. 

For  the  past  100  years,  prior  to  the  world  war,  90 


per  cent  of  immigration  to  the  United  States  came  from 
Europe.  In  1920,  however,  only  57  per  cent  came  from 
that  source,  the  majority  of  the  others  coming  from 
Canada  and  Mexico. 

Approximately  $3,000,0x30  was  expended  by  the  Bu- 
reau of  Immigration  for  the  year  1919-1920  and  $6,000,- 
ooo  was  requested  for  the  fiscal  year  1920-1921.  The 
officials  in  charge  have  repeatedly  represented  to  Con- 
gress the  totally  insufficient  appropriation  and  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  force  to  properly  carry  on  this  tremendously 
important  work  for  the  economic  safe  guarding  of  our 
Nation. 

There  is  now  a  personnel  of  approximately  1,700  and 
there  should  be  at  least  2,500.  Inspectors  begin  with  a 
salary  of  $1,380,  and  can,  after  years,  reach  a  maxi- 
mum of  $2,500  a  year. 

A  training  school  for  officers  is  necessary  and  would 
result  in  greater  efficiency  and  would  be  of  economic 
value.  A  proper  system  of  registration  of  all  aliens  and 
a  follow-up  system  at  certain  intervals  for  a  given  period 
of  years  after  entry  would  also  be  of  the  greatest  eco- 
nomic value.  At  present  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  is 
under  the  Secretary  of  Labor  whereas  medical  officers  of 
the  United  States  Public  Health  Service,  under  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  are  intrusted,  under  the  pres- 
ent law,  with  the  physical  and  mental  examination  of 
arriving  aliens  and  seamen.  It  would  seem  at  first  sight 
to  one  not  versed  in  all  the  details  and  intricacies  of  this 
veary  important  work  that  either  one  or  the  other  of  these 
Departments  or  some  entirely  separate  Department 
should  have  entire  charge  and  be  responsible  for  the 
most  effective  carrying  out  of  the  examination  and  dis- 
position of  entering  aliens,  with  a  sufficient  staff  and 
adequate  appropriation. 

Of  the  approximately  110,000,000  population  of  the 
United  States  in  1920  it  has  been  estimated  that  about 
14  per  cent  are  foreign  born  or  to  be  exact,  13,920,692 
are  alien  born,  and  a  much  larger  per  cent  are  of  foreign 
born  parentage — either  one  or  both  parents. 

Let  us  now  turn  for  a  moment  and  see  what  happens 
in  the  course  of  a  year  to  our  population  from  an  eco- 
nomic standpoint :  500,000  of  our  population  died  with- 
in a  period  of  5  weeks  from  influenza  during  the  year 
1919-1920;  150,000  died  of  tuberculosis  during  this  year, 
7  to  8  million  cases  of  malaria  occurred  in  the  United 
States  during  this  same  period  with  an  economic  loss 


of  one  billion  dollars — over  14  per  cent  of  these  at  least 
were  foreign  born. 

During  the  late  world  war,  33  per  cent  of  all  men  pre- 
senting themselves  for  examination  at  draft  boards  were 
physically  unfit  to  fight,  due  to  defects — a  large  propor- 
tion of  which  were  preventable.  One  of  our  leading 
psychologists — an  authority  upon  mental  tests — from  the 
examination  of  the  figures  resulting  from  the  psycholog- 
ical examination  of  over  750,000  of  the  men  drafted 
into  our  army^has  estimated  that  approximately  50  per 
cent  of  the  entire  population  of  the  United  States  are  of 
only  12  years,  or  under,  mental  age — in  other  words, 
have  the  average  mentality  of  the  average  12-year-old 
child  or  a  lesser  degree  of  mentality. 

Some  80,000  of  these  soldiers  inducted  into  our  mili- 
tary force  and  thus  examined  were  not  permitted  to  go 
overseas — these  intelligence  tests  indicating  that  they 
did  not  have  the  intellectual  ability  to  be  an  effective 
unit  for  the  work  required.  This  rapid  elimination  went 
far  in  raising  the  value  and  effectiveness  of  those  who 
really  did  go  overseas.  Officers  and  special  details  for 
difficult  or  hazardous  service  were  selected  quickly  and 
efficiently  by  means  of  these  intelligence  tests  all  along 
the  line,  and  it  was  almost  invariably  found  that  those 
who  performed  the  best  were  those  who  had  the  highest 
rating  in  these  intelligence  tests. 

Seventy-five  thousand  five  hundred  and  eighty-eight 
cases  of  neuro-psychiatry  came  under  observation 
of  the  Medical  Corps  of  the  United  States  Army  dur- 
ing the  world  war,  or  about  2  per  cent  per  thousand  of 
the  total  military  population  of  the  United  States,  most 
of  whom  were  eliminated  very  quickly  from  active  units 
by  means  of  the  intelligence  tests  and  rating. 

In  addition  to  their  employment  in  the  Army  with 
such  valuable  results,  these  intelligence  tests  have  been 
successfully  employed  in  many  other  fields  of  activity 
with  marked  economic  results — in  determining  the  grade 
of  mentality  of  the  mentally  defective,  the  delinquent, 
the  sexually  immoral  and  perverted ,  the  criminal,  epi- 
leptic, vagrant  or  dependent,  for  eoucational .  purposes 
in  the  determination  of  the  superior,  normal  or  retarded 
student  and  for  vocational  purposes. 

In  a  recent  survey,  1920,  of  delinquency,  dependency 
and  feeble  mindeness  in  the  state  of  Oregon  for  the 
determination  of  potential  or  actual  social  liabilities 

10 


conducted  by  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service 
and  believed  to  be  the  first  state-wide  cooperative  move- 
ment in  mental  and  social  hygiene  by  citizens  of  any 
State,  some  45,000  survey  cards  were  issued  and  of 
3,634  cards  returned,  2,502  recorded  retardation  in 
school  work  of  one  or  more  years.  Over  25  per  cent  of 
these  showed  symptoms  of  mental  defect  or  dulling, 
J,634  of  these  cases  were  further  analyzed  and  of  the 
same  234  were  recorded  as  mental  defectives,  446  as 
delinquents  and  798  as  dependents. 

In  the  winter  of  1919-1920  the  Utah  State  Board  of 
Insanity  appealed  to  the  Department  of  Psychology  in 
the  University  of  Utah  for  aid  in  conducting  a  state- 
wide mental  survey  of  the  school  children  of  the  entire 
State,  excluding  Salt  Lake  City,  which  maintains  its  own 
department  of  clinical  psychology,  for  the  purpose  of 
determining  those  of  superior  abilities  for  educational 
and  vocational  purposes,  those  doing  poor  or  unsatisfac- 
tory work  because  of  mental  retardation  or  physical  han- 
dicap and  finally  in  order  to  perfect  ond  standardize 
a  set  of  group  mental  tests  applicable  to  the  children  of 
Utah,  so  that  the  tests  could  be  continued  by  superin- 
tendents and  principals  of  the  State  after  this  prelimin- 
ary survey.  A  modification  of  the  Army  Beta  Tests  for 
groups  was  found  best  adapted  to  this  purpose.  These 
hitter  were  found  to  make  possible  an  evaluation  of  rate 
of  adaptation  to  a  new  situation  and  this  is  particularly 
valuable  for  vocational  purposes. 

Over  15,000  children  were  tested  and  about  5  per  cent, 
found  to  be  in  the  failing  group  and  it  was  estimated 
that  1. 1 1  per  cent,  of  the  total  school  population  of  Utah 
were  sub-normal.  Of  the  648  children  in  the  failing 
group,  44  per  cent,  were  in  the  first  and  second  grades, 
33  per  cent,  in  the  third  grade,  14  per  cent,  in  the  fourth 
grade  and  8  per  cent,  in  the  fifth  grade — these  5  grades 
comprising  60  per  cent,  of  the  total  school  population. 
Undoubtedly  some  of  the  40  per  cent,  in  the  higher 
grades  were  also  subnormal  which  would  increase  the 
percentage  of  subnormality  in  the  total  school  population 
to  a  slight  degree.  Many  of  these  children  were  of 
foreign  born  parents,  their  fathers  working  in  the  mines. 

Miss  Elizabeth  J.  Farrell,  Inspector  of  Ungraded 
Classes  of  the  Department  of  Education  of  the  City  of 
Xew  York,  has  estimated  that  there  are  over  22,200 
ungraded  children  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York 
City — less  than  20  per  cent,  of  whom  are  now  receiving 

II 


instruction  in  ungraded  classes  at  an  annual  expense  of 
approximately  $500,000. 

These  children  are  mentally  retarded  and  cannot  keep 
up  with  the  regular  classes  for  the  average  child  and 
will  never  develop  beyond  the  mental  age  of  10  years. 

In  an  analysis  of  4,771  of  these  school  children  in 
ungraded  classes,  500  or  10.48  per  cent.,  were  foreign 
born,  88  per  cent.  American  born  and  1.52  per  cent,  un- 
ascertained; 3,657  or  70.6  per  cent,  of  these  children  had 
foreign  born  fathers  and  3,565,  or  74.7  per  cent,  had 
foreign  born  mothers,  thus  only  19.1  per  cent,  of  these 
ungraded  children  had  American  born  fathers  and  20.8 
per  cent,  had  American  born  mothers.  Mo^t  of  these 
foreign  born  children  and  parents  came  from  the  fol- 
lowing countries  and  in  the  following  numbers: 

Nation.  Number  of  Number  of          Number  of 

Fathers.  Mothers.  Children. 

Italy    1,627  1,584  242 

Russia    859  836  143 

Germany    264  214 

Austria    241  244  26 

Ireland   221  260  2 

Hungary    78  96  9 

Poland 69  71  12 

England    47  38  13 

Roumania  34  26  4 

Bohemia    30  29  o 

Sweden   25  23  o 

Siciliy    23  23  5 

France   22  12  3 

Scotland    20  17  i 

Spain    18  14  4 

Greece   12  12  2 

Norway    1 1  10  o 

Austro-Hungary  5  6  I 

All  other  countries  enumerated  had  less  than  5  of 
either  parent  born  therein  in  this  series.  Of  1,188  other 
retarded  school  children  intensively  studied  70  per  cent, 
were  found  retarded  from  one  to  nine  years — 44  per 
cent,  will  be  permanently  mentally  defective.  Only 
those  with  an  intelligence  quotient  below  80  were  con- 
sidered mentally  abnormal  and  2  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
school  population  is  estimated  to  be  mentally  defective 
— mostly  morons. 

These  statistics  show  the  very  large  percentage  of 
retarded  school  children  in  our  New  York  Public  Schools 
who  are  foreign  born  or  of  foreign  born  parentage,  and 
when  we  think  of  the  vast  sums  spent  for  educational 
purposes — nearly  $44,000,000  in  New  York  City  alone, 
during  1920-1921  it  is  a  matter  of  serious  economic  sig- 

12 


nificance.  The  majority  of  Italian  children  are  found  to 
be  retarded  to  some  degree  and  their  mental  level  is 
found  to  be  two  or  three  years  below  the  average  native 
white. 

It  is  found  that  approximately  40  per  cent,  of  school 
children  fail  to  progress  through  the  various  grades  at 
the  expected  rate  and  over  $40,000,000  of  the  $400,- 
000,000  annually  expended  in  the  United  States  for 
school  instruction  is  devoted  to  reteaching  children  what 
they  have  already  been  taught,  but  have  failed  to  learn, 
and  this  is  almost  a  total  loss.  The  employment  of  in- 
telligence test  primarily  would  have  determined  the  de- 
gree of  deficiency,  and  with  the  application  of  even  a 
part  of  this  $40,000,000  for  ungraded  classes,  this  eco- 
nomic loss  could  be  entirely  avoided  and  suitable  instruc- 
tion given. 

The  value  and  economic  importance  of  the  employ- 
ment of  intelligence  tests  has  been  recognized  at  Colum- 
bia and  other  universities.  At  the  1921  fall  examinations 
of  the  freshman  or  entering  class  at  Columbia  College 
all  applicants  were  offered  an  intelligence  examination 
requiring  a  total  of  approximately  3  hours  of  time  and 
which  should  be  pased  satisfactorily  by  any  applicant  of 
normal  intelligence  who  has  had  a  high  school  training. 
In  many  institutions  in  case  of  subsequent  poor  work 
further  intelligence  tests  are  employed  and  the  student 
directed  to  take  work  for  which  his  intellectual  ability 
best  fits  him,  or  if  unable  to  select  such  is  eliminated 
altogether  and  thus  wastes  no  further  time  or  money  in 
pursuing  a  course  for  which  he  is  mentally  unsuited. 
Such  intelligence  tests  are  of  the  greatest  value  in  solv- 
ing this  problem  for  the  student,  his  family  and  the  edu- 
cational institution.  This  'brings  out  the  main  difference 
between  the  usual  school  examination  and  an  intelligence 
test — in  the  former  the  candidate  uses  his  resourceful- 
ness (and  often  largely  his  memory)  in  solving  problems 
relating  to  a  specific  course  of  instruction,  whereas  in 
the  latter  if  properly  conducted,  he  demonstrates  his  re- 
sourcefulness in  solving  problems  which  do  not  relate  to 
any  specific  school  work — he  cannot  "cram"  for  this  lat- 
ter examination. 

Prior  to  the  development  of  the  intelligence  tests  the 
low  grade  moron  was  about  as  high  a  type  of  defective 
as  most  physicians  or  even  psychologists  were  able  to 
identify  as  feeble-minded.  By  the  careful  employment 
of  suitable  intelligence  tests  in  the  hands  of  experienced 
psychologists,  however,  tens  of  thousands  of  these  high- 

13 


grade  defectives  can  be  brought  under  the  surveillance 
and  protection  of  society,  resulting  in  curtailing  the  re- 
production of  feeble-mindedness  and  the  elimination  of 
an  enormous  amount  of  crime,  pauperism  and  industrial 
inefficiency. 

Lombroso  searched  for  physical  stigmata  in  criminals 
— the  intelligence  tests  bring  out  in  a  definite  manner 
their  mental  defects — the  real  cause  of  their  asocial  con- 
duct— and  at  least  25  per  cent,  of  criminals  are  mentally 
defective  and  physical  anomalies  are  simply  accompani- 
ments of  feeble-mindeness  and  their  only  diagnostic  sig- 
nificance is  that  of  indicating  mental  deficiency.  Men- 
tal weakness  and  moral  abnormality  or  asocial  conduct 
are  closely  associated.  The  value  of  intelligence  tests  in 
dtermining  the  disposition  of  cases  in  our  courts  is 
rapidly  being  recognized  and  the  discriminating  judge 
in  the  case  of  crime,  delinquency  and  all  forms  of  asocial 
conduct  will  refer  the  case  to  physicians  and  psychol- 
ogists of  experience  before  determining  the  ultimate  dis- 
position of  these  cases. 

A  striking  instance  of  the  value  of  intelligence  tests 
is  shown  by  the  record  of  100  girls  committed  to  the 
Ohio  State  Reformitory  as  with  "intellect  sound."  In- 
telligence tests  given  by  a  competent  psychologist  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  36  per  cent,  of  these  girls  were  un- 
questionably feeble  minded  and  should  of  course  have 
different  care  than  that  of  girls  of  normal  intelligence. 

Dr.  H.  H.  Goddard,  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Ju- 
venile Research  of  Ohio,  supervised  the  giving  of  the 
Binet  tests  in  100  juvenile  court  cases  chosen  at  random 
in  Newark,  New  Jersey  and  nearly  50  per  cent,  were 
classified  as  feeble-minded. 

Of  56  delinquent  girls  from  14  to  20  years  of  age 
almost  50  per  cent,  belonged  to  the  9  or  10  year  level ; 
of  100  prisoners  in  the  Massachusetts  State  Reforma- 
tory 25  per  cent,  were  feeble-minded.  Of  1,186  girls 
tested  at  the  State  Industrial  School  at  Lancaster,  Pa., 
28  per  cent,  were  of  subnormal  intelligence. 

Dr.  Katherine  B.  Davis,  former  Commissioner  of 
Charities  and  Correction  of  New  York  City,  reported 
on  1,000  cases  entered  at  the  Bedford  Home  for  Wo- 
men in  Westchester  County,  New  York  and  stated  that 
at  least  157  were  feeble-minded.  Of  564  prostitutes  in- 
vestigated in  connection  with  the  Municipal  Court  of 
Chicago,  only  3  per  cent,  had  gone  beyond  the  fifth 
grade  in  school  and  it  is  reasonably  certain  that  50  per 
cent,  or  more  were  feeble-minded. 

14 


At  the  Joliet  Prison,  111.,  50  per  cent,  of  the  female 
inmates  and  26  per  cent,  of  the  male  ftimates  were  found 
to  be  feebleminded.  Of  150  delinquents  in  the  Whittier 
School  for  Boys  at  Whittier,  Cal.,  28  per  cent,  were 
feeble-minded  and  25  per  cent,  additional  were  at  or 
near  the  border  line  and  in  the  girls'  division  the  per- 
centage closely  agreed  with  that  of  the  boys. 

Of  1,000  young  adult  prisoners  psychologically  exam- 
ined at  the  State  Reformatory,  Jeffersonville,  Ind.,  ap- 
proximately 50  per  cent,  were  found  to  be  feeble-minded. 

In  his  study  of  cases  in  the  New  Jersey  State  Prisons, 
Dr.  E.  A.  Doll  finds  that  of  the  white  prisoners  some 
43  per  cent,  are  foreign  born  and  of  these  Italians  make 
up  44  per  cent,  of  the  foreign  born  criminals. 

The  negroes  make  up  about  23  per  cent,  of  the  total 
prisoners.  He  also  finds  that  the  average  mental  age 
of  the  foreign  born  prisoners  is  actually  below  that  of 
the  mental  average  of  the  negro  prisoner  and  the  latter 
is  less  than  that  of  the  native  born  white.  Furthermore 
there  is  a  tendency  in  the  foreign  born  to  commit  the 
more  serious  crimes  of  murder  and  assault,  whereas,  the 
rative  white  prisoners'  tendency  is  more  towards  crimes 
against  property  than  against  persons,  which  requires  a 
higher  degree  of  intelligence  to  plan  and  execute. 

Of  42  delinquents  examined  at  the  New  York  State 
Agricultural  and  Industrial  School,  at  Industry,  N.  Y., 
only  6  had  American  fathers  and  7  American  mothers, 
the  parentage  of  6  fathers  and  8  mothers  was  unknown 
and  the  balance  were  foreign  born.  Of  these  children 
of  foreign  born  parents  only  6  had  an  intelligence  quo- 
t'ent  of  100. 

Dr.  Robert  H.  Gault,  Professor  of  Psychology,  North- 
western University  and  Managing  Editor  of  the  Journal 
cf  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology,  kindly  forwarded  to 
ne  the  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Chicago  Crime 
Commission  and  on  page  34  of  this  Report  the  following 
statement  appears:  "The  problem  of  immigration,  al- 
though chiefly  a  national  one  and  under  the  exclusive 
control  of  the  Federal  authorities,  is  one  effecting  all  of 
the  larger  cities  of  the  country.  Some  of  the  results,  as 
shown  by  analysis  of  available  criminal  records  by  your 
Committee,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  there  is  need 
for  more  stringent  control  at  Ellis  Island,  if  not  for 
drastic  changes  in  the  Immigration  Laws.  While  it  is 
true  that  many  of  the  best  citizens  of  the  United  States 
emigrated  from  the  Old  World  to  this  country,  and  that 
each  year  we  receive  large  numbers  of  men  and  women 

15 


who  are  most  excellent  material  for  American  citizen- 
ship, the  fact  remains  that  the  United  States  continues 
to  be  a  dumping  ground  for  the  riff-raff  of  Europe." 

it  is  estimated  that  there  are  over  45,000  mental  defec- 
tives in  New  York  State  alone  and  there  are  33  states, 
as  determined  by  the  draft  which  exceed  New  York  in 
the  distribution  rates  of  mental  defectives.  These  de- 
tectives are  simply  children  who  have  never  grown  up 
intellectually  regardless  of  their  chronological  age — less 
than  10  per  cent,  of  them  are  idiots  and  only  approxi- 
mately 4,000  are  in  proper  institutions  for  their  care  at 
a  cost  of  about  $3,000,000  annually. 

All  these  cases  are  potential  criminals  or  prostitutes 
unless  placed  in  a  proper  environment.  If  placed  in  suit- 
able surroundings,  however,  most  of  them  are  capable  of 
earning  a  living. 

In  a  recent  article  entitled  "Backward  and  Defective 
Children,"  by  the  late  Dr.  Pearce  Bailey,  Chairman  of 
the  New  York  State  Commission  for  Mental  Defectives 
he  states :  "According  to  an  estimate  made  by  Dr.  Wm. 
C.  Sandy,  Psychiatrist  to  the  New  York  State  Commis- 
sion, 31  per  cent,  of  mental  defectives  in  this  State  (of 
N.  Y.)  are  foreign  born.  Of  these  Italy  furnishes  more 
than  any  other  foreign  country.  It  is  true  that  the 
excess  of  foreign  born  defectives  is  not  much  in 
excess  of  the  foreign  born  population  as  a  whole  (cen- 
sus, 1910),  but  it  should  be  much  less.  The  immigra- 
tion laws  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  mental  defectives 
are  carefully  drawn.  Why  are  they  not  strictly  en- 
forced at  all  ports  of  entry?  Special  examinations  for 
the  purpose  of  detecting  mental  defects  should  be  made 
at  al  these  ports,  although  even  then  all  foreign  born 
mental  defectives  cannot  be  excluded.  Some  defective 
young  children  will  always  get  by.  The  Terman  Psycho- 
logical Scale  provides  for  the  identification  of  mental 
defect  at  the  age  of  3  years,  but  it  is  difficult  to  be  cer- 
tain before  the  age  of  4  or  5  years.  So  we  need  not 
expect  to  prevent  the  entrance  into  this  country  of  all 
foreign  born  mental  defectives,  but  we  can  exclude 
more  than  we  do,  and  when  we  do  we  may  expect  a 
decrease  in  pauperism  and  crime  and  in  State  depen- 
dents." 

This  is  significant  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Bailey  who,  with 
the  rank  of  Colonel,  was  in  charge  of  the  Psychiatric 
Section  of  the  United  States  Army  during  the  world 
war.  Re-examination  at  the  end  of  5  years  or  less,  with 
provision  for  deportation  in  case  of  feeble-mindedness 

16 


would  provide  for  the  ultimate  exclusion  of  doubtful 
cases  who  might  be  overlooked  upon  entry. 

In  addition  to  the  problem  of  the  mental  defective  as 
a  potential  criminal  and  prostitue  in  an  unfavorable  en- 
vironment is  the  still  more  serious  problem  of  their  in- 
discriminate propagation,  either  by  marriage  with  de- 
fectives like  themselves,  or  through  illicit  relations  re- 
sulting in  the  propagation  of  illegitimate  children — thus 
perpetuating  their  kind  through  the  inexorable  laws  of 
heredity. 

A  striking  illustration  of  this  is  the  case  of  Martin 
Kallikak — a  young  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War  of 
English  descent — who  while  visiting  at  a  tavern  fre- 
quented by  militia,  met  a  feeble-minded  girl  and  became 
the  father  of  her  illegitimate  feeble-minded  son.  In 
1912  there  were  480  known  direct  descendants  of  this 
temporary  union  and  it  is  known  that  36  of  these  were 
illegitimate,  33  sexually  immoral,  24  confirmed  alco- 
holics, 8  kept  houses  of  ill-fame,  143  were  definitely 
known  to  be  feeble-minded  and  many  others  were  of 
questionable  mentality.  In  marked  contrast  to  this  rec- 
ord is  the  following :  A  few  years  after  returning  from 
the  war  this  same  Martin  Kallikak  married  a  respectable 
girl  of  good  family  and  from  this  union  496  individuals 
have  been  traced  in  direct  descent  and  in  this  branch  of 
the  family  there  were  no  illegitimate  children,  no  im- 
moral women  and  only  one  man  sexually  loose,  no  crim- 
inals, no  keepers  of  houses  of  ill-fame  and  only  two  con- 
firmed alcoholics,  not  a  single  feeble-minded  individual 
and  most  of  them  were  either  doctors,  lawyers,  judges, 
educators,  traders  or  land-holders. 

The  Hill  Folk — a  New  England  family  of  English 
and  French  origin,  an'd  of  which  709  persons  were 
traced — of  the  married  women.  24  per  cent,  gave  birth 
to  illegitimate  children,  10  per  cent,  of  the  women  were 
prostitutes,  criminal  tendencies  were  found  in  24  mem- 
bers, alcoholism  was  still  more  common  and  48  per  cent, 
were  feeble-minded. 

During:  the  past  60  years  these  Hill  Folk  have  cost  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  in  charitable!  relief,  care  of 
feeble-minded,  epileptic,  insane,  correction  and  punish- 
ment for  crime,  prostitution,  pauperism,  etc.,  at  least 
$500,000. 

Another  notorious  family  is  the  Nams  derived  from 
a  roving"  Dutchman  who  settled  in  western  Massachu- 
setts, and  of  whom  784  have  been  traced  including  187 
nlcoholics,  232  women  and  199  men  known  to  be  licen- 

17 


tious,  48  inmates  of  prisons  and  costing  over  $1,500,000. 
The  exact  percentage  of   feeble-minded  has  not  yet 
been  determined,   but  it  was  unquestionably  a  leading 
trait. 

In  New  York  State  the  Juke  family  has  lived  in  the 
Lake  Region  of  the  central  part  of  the  State  for  over 
70  years,  the  original  ancestor  having  come  from  Hol- 
land. Five  hundred  and  forty  descendants  have  been 
traced,  of  which  20  per  cent,  were  born  out  of  wedlock, 
37  known  to  be  syphilitic,  53  been  in  the  poorhouse,  76 
sentenced  to  prison,  and  of  229  women  of  marriageable 
age  128  were  prostitutes.  The  economic  loss  to  the  State 
of  New  York  by  this  Juke  family  in  70  years  is  esti- 
mated to  be  more  than  $1,300,000,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
dissemination  of  disease,  crime,  vagrancy,  sexual  im- 
morality and  perversion,  promiscuous  living  in  squalid 
quarters,  as  squatters  on  property  not  their  own  and  con- 
stantly shifting  about. 

The  family  of  Sam  Sixty,  located  in  the  river  bottom 
region  of  the  Ohio  River  in  the  State  of  Ohio  was  so 
designated  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  its 
members  had  an  intelligence  rating  of  60  or  less  on  the 
basis  of  the  normal  of  100.  Of  5  generations  investi- 
gated in  1915  by  Mary  Stover  Kostir,  formerly  field 
worker  of  the  Bureau  of  Juvenile  Research  of  the  State 
of  Ohio,  474  descendants  were  traced  from  Sam  and 
Jim  Sixty  who  had  been  committed  to  the  Ohio  Peni- 
tentiary convicted  of  the  crime  of  incest  upon  one  of 
the  daughters  of  the  former,  and  one  of  these  daughters, 
1424  years  old,  testing  only  8  years  mentally,  was  com- 
mitted to  the  Girls'  Industrial  Home.  The  father,  47 
years  old,  tested  only  84/5  years  mentally,  or  60  per 
cent.  Of  261,  from  which  some  definite  data  was  ob- 
tainable, 60  had  court  records  and  56  had  been  in  public 
institutions.  Of  these,  261,  74  were  criminalistic,  77 
sexually  immoral,  55  alcoholic,  23  prostitutes,  4  epilep- 
tic, 3  insane,  3  tramps.  Of  the  crimes  perpetrated — 
burglary,  larceny,  destruction  of  property,  bootlegging, 
operating  houses  of  ill-fame,  riot,  perjury,  incest,  rape, 
homicide,  shooting  to  kill  and  attempting  to  poison  are 
enumerated;  55  are  recorded  as  feeble-minded,  only  3 
of  normal  intelligence  and  203  mentality  undetermined 
from  lack  of  data.  The  majority  were  poor,  shiftless, 
ignorant,  alcoholic,  sexually  perverted  individuals,  filthy 
in  habits,  using  vile  language,  brutal  or  abusive,  wander- 
ing about  as  tramps,  vagrants  or  hoboes,  guilty  of  as- 

18 


sault,  wilful  destruction  of  property,  burglary,  stealing, 
larceny,  extortion  and  committing  of  felonies.  Many 
were  tubercular,  syphilitic  or  insane,  unable  to  support 
themselves  or  families,  and  inmates,  of  the  work  house, 
correctional  or  charitable  institutions  or  social  depen- 
dents. It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  family  wasj:he 
cause  of  an  enormous  amount  of  trouble,  great  expense, 
and  a  large  economic  loss  to  that  community. 

Such  a  record  of  unrestrained  propogation  of  crim- 
inals, moral  delinquents  and  social  dependents,  with  the 
tremendous  cost  of  their  care  and  financial  loss  from 
their  social  conduct  and  economic  unproductiveness 
should  cause  us  to  use  every  possible  safeguard  against 
the  admission  of  defectives  from  other  countries  into 
our  midst  and  if  advertantly  they  should  obtain  admis- 
sion, their  prompt  deportation  to  the  place  from  whence 
'hey  came  should  be  carried  out. 

The  trial  of  those  who  become  criminals  cost  the 
State  on  an  average  of  $1,000  apiece  and  some  of  the 
chronic  recidivists  have  a  record  of  as  high  as  20  con- 
victions and  many  average  3  or  more. 

There  is  ample  authority  under  the  Mental  Deficiency 
Law  of  1919  for  the  commitment  of  mentally  defective 
delinquents  to  custodial  care  and  they  should  not  be 
placed  with  the  non-criminal  mental  defective.  There 
vvere  2,000  vacancies  in  the  penal  and  correctional  in- 
stitutions of  the  State  of  New  York  in  1920  and  with 
only  the  additional  expense  of  maintenance  the  State 
Legislature  could  provide  that  these  different  institu- 
tions should  fill  their  vacancies  with  such  irresponsible 
criminals  and  keep  them  there  and  prevent  their  propo- 
gation and  by  vocational  means  make  them  largely  self 
supporting.  It  costs  approximately  $500  annually  for 
the  care  of  each  mental  defective  in  the  several  institu- 
tions for  that  purpose  in  this  State,  but  by  a  suitable 
colony  plan  for  properly  selected  cases  and  placing  of 
other  selected  cases  in  families  where  the  defective 
would  be  properly  safeguarded  this  expense  would  be 
greatly  decreased. 

As  an  index  of  the  very  appreciable  percentage  of 
these  delinquents  who  are  either  foreign  born  or  are  of 
foreign  born  parentage,  Miss  Flora  M.  Purcell,  investi- 
gator in  charge  of  the  Department  of  Public  Welfare 
Mental  Clinics,  prepared  statistics  of  the  812  defectives 
examined  at  Dr.  Menas  S.  Gregory's  Psychiatric  Service 
at  Bellevue  Hospital  in  1920,  of  which  239  were  com- 

19 


mitted  to  Randall's  Island,  no  to  Craig  Colony  for 
epileptics,  239  to  Letchworth  Village,  37  to  Newark,  141 
to  Rome  and  46  to  Syracuse  State  School — the  four  lat- 
ter institutions  being  under  the  charge  of  the  New  York 
State  Commission  for  Mental  Defectives.  Of  these 
812  defectives,  50  were  foreign  born,  512  were  Ameri- 
can born  of  foreign  parents,  and  only  274  American 
born  of  American  parents.  Thus  only  33.7  per  cent 
of  these  mental  defectives  were  native  born  of  native 
born  parents  and  66.3  per  cent  were  either  foreign  born 
or  had  foreign  born  parents. 

Dr.  S.  D.  Porteus,  director  of  research  of  the  Train- 
ing School  at  Vineland,  N.  J.,  in  a  recent  communica- 
tion to  me  has  made  the  following  interesting  observa- 
tions— he  states :  "To  my  mind  one  of  the  most  serious 
consequences  of  improperly  controlled  immigration  is 
the  admission  of  large  numbers  of  psychopathic  cases. 
At  one  time,  because  of  the  restricted  opportunities  of 
travel,  I  believe  that  it  was  true  to  say  that  immigrants 
tended  to  be  a  selected  class,  comprising  the  more  ad- 
venturous and  enterprising  of  the  population.  That  at 
least  was  our  experience  in  Australia  where  the  type  of 
immigrant  of  50  years  back  was  of  undoubtedly  much 
higher  level  than  those  who  have  entered  the  country 
during  recent  years.  At  present,  immigration  is  such  a 
comparatively  easy  matter  that  the  restless  maladjusted 
individual  has  the  chance  to  transfer  his  undesirable 
person  to  another  country.  In  an  analysis  of  cases 
which  we  have  made  in  this  institution,  I  estimate  about 
one-third  of  our  psychopathic  cases  are  of  foreign  ex- 
traction." Dr.  Porteus  suggests  that  conditions,  educa- 
tional and  otherwise,  are  much  more  stimulating  in 
America  than  in  the  countries  from  which  many  of  our 
immigrants  come.  He  states  further,  "The  Italian  child 
whose  mental  level  is  2  or  3  years  below  the  average 
native  white,  is  forced  through  our  school  grades  at 
the  same  rate  as  the  average  native  white  and  often 
breaks  down  mentally  as  a  result,  and  this  difference  in 
intellectual  capacity  accounts  for  the  very  large  per- 
centage of  Italians  found  in  all  classes  of  defects,  de- 
linquencies and  dependents.  The  foreign  born  Jew,  com- 
ing from  an  atmosphere  of  repression  to  that  of  stimu- 
lation, also  in  many  instances  breaks  down  mentally 
under  the  stress  or  cannot  carry  on  to  the  same  degree 
as  the  average  native  born  American.  Of  course,  the 

20 


proper  place  to  take  action  to  diminish  the  inflow  of 
undesirables  is  at  Ellis  Island." 

We  have  thus  far  seen  the  very  large  incidence  of 
foreign  born  among  our  criminals  and  delinquents  and 
the  appalling  statistics  of  their  unrestricted  reproduc 
tion. 

Let  us  see  what  our  statistics  on  insanity  indicate.  In 
1910  there  were  187,791  inmates  in  insane  hospitals  i-.i 
the  United  States,  of  which  nearly  30  per  cent  were 
foreign  born  white.  In  New  York  State  there  are  over 
40,000  insane  men,  women  and  children  in  hospitals,  le^s 
than  1,000  of  which  are  in  private  licensed  institutions. 
The  balance  are  a  public  charge  upon  the  community 
at  an  annual  cost  of  approximately  $20,000,000,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  economic  loss  from  total  unproductivi  .y. 

Another  point  of  grave  concern  is  that  insanity  is  on 
the  increase  and  that  more  and  more  annually  succumb 
to  the  stress  and  demands  of  our  complex  present-day 
so-called  civilization.  Only  3.4  per  cent  of  these  cases 
are  discharged  annually  as  recovered;  12.4  per  cent  of. 
all  New  York  State  expenditures  during  1919  was  for 
the  care  of  the  insane  alone.  Of  those  patients  admitted 
in  1919,  500  had  served  our  country  as  soldiers  during 
the  world  war. 

The  most  important  aspect  of  this  subject  from  our 
standpoint  is  the  fact  that  the  per  capita  cost  of  care 
and  maintenance  of  each  case  was  $304.09  in  1919,  the 
average  hospital  residence  is  10  years  and  unless  an 
alien  developing  insanity  within  5  years  after  entry  is 
detected  he  cannot  be  deported.  This  provision  should 
be  repealed  and  the  law  so  enacted  that  an  alien  must 
be  deported  at  any  time  after  admission  should  he  be- 
come insane. 

Of  all  admissions  to  our  New  York  State  hospitals 
for  the  insane  during  1919,  48.8  per  cent  were  foreign 
born,  2  per  cent  nationality  unascertained,  and  49.2  per 
cent  native  born;  60  per  cent  of  all  those  admitted  had 
foreign  born  parents,  11.3  per  cent  mixed  parentage 
(one  native  born  and  one  foreign  born),  only  25  per 
cent  had  native  born  parents,  and  3.1  per  cent  parentage 
unknown. 

From  an  economic  and  eugenic  standpoint  these  fig- 
ures indicate  that  the  majority  of  our  insane  are  derived 
from  aliens,  and  that,  and  this  is  the  most  serious  aspect 
cf  the  case,  most  of  the  insanity  of  the  United  States 

21 


i^  propagated  through  insane  alien  ancestry.  Of  all 
parents  who  develop  insanity  and  enter  insane  hospitals, 
25  per  cent  of  the  men  and  6  per  cent  of  the  women 
Lre  cases  of  general  paresis — an  entirely  preventable 
form  of  insanity,  as  100  per  cent  of  all  cases  of  paresis 
are  due  to  syphilis,  an  infectious  disease  and  th';  psy- 
chosis is  a  result  of  the  latter  disease. 

In  the  case  of  epilepsy  it  is  estimated  that  there  are 
over  20,000  epileptics  in  New  York  State  alone  and 
practically  all  are  more  or  less  inefficient  up  to  com- 
plete dependency  and  many  require  institutional  care. 
At  the  Craig  Colony  for  epileptics  at  Sonyea,  New  York, 
supported  by  and  costing  the  State  over  half  a  million 
dollars  annually,  there  were  1,609  inmates  on  January 
i,  1921 — 829  males  and  780  females.  The  per  capita 
cost  in  the  care  of  these  epileptics  was  $377.92  and 
approximately  10  per  cent  of  those  admitted  were  for- 
eign born  and  over  50  per  cent  of  the  others  had  foreign 
born  parents. 

The  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities,  Division  of 
Eugenics  and  Social  Welfare,  in  1917  carried  on  a  very 
exhaustive  survey  of  the  extent  and  cause  sof  depen- 
dency in  the  167,331  inhabitants  of  Oneida  County,  New 
York,  and  found  that  6  per  cent  of  this  total  population 
was  mentally  defective,  over  12  per  cent  of  persons 
other  than  those  in  alms  houses  or  other  institutions 
became  partial  or  complete  dependents  and  as  such  re- 
ceived outdoor  relief  in  various  forms;  1.2  per  cent 
were  unable  to  make  continuous  and  adequate  reactions 
to  the  environment  in  which  they  found  themselves. 
All  those  whose  quantitative  intelligence  fell  below  n  or 
12  years  normal  mental  level  at  maturity  were  consid- 
ered cases  of  mental  defect,  as  also  were  cases  showing 
that  other  form  of  mental  defect  described  as  affective 
deviation  and  while  so  large  a  degree  determines  con- 
duct of  social  or  anti-social  value;  1.2  per  cent  of  those 
outside  of  institutions  received  public  relief  and  9.9  per 
cent  of  those  now  outside  of  institutions  had  at  some 
time  been  inmates  of  institutions  and  23  per  cent  had 
relatives  who  had  been  institution  dependents  some- 
where at  some  time  prior  to  this  survey.  In  49.9  per 
cent  of  all  admissions  to  insane  hospitals,  a  family  his- 
tory of  insanity,  nervous  diseases,  neuropathic  or  psy- 
chopathic traits  was  obtainable.  Of  53  young  felons 
investigated  in  this  survey,  36  per  cent  were  foreign 

22 


horn,  and  of  these  foreign  born,  33  per  cent  were  Ital- 
ians. 

Of  1 80  criminals  in  prison,  95  were  native  born  and 
85  foreign  born,  and  of  the  latter  64  were  Italians.  Of 
those  committed  to  the  New  York  House  of  Refuge  at 
Randall's  Island  33  1/3  per  cent  were  foreign  born. 

The  eugenic  make-up  of  all  these  types  show  that 
recessive  ^unit  characters  dominate  and  control  making 
for  every  "sort  of  anti-social,  asocial,  pathological  and  de- 
pendent symptom  behavior  and  these  individuals  thus 
become  dependents  in  every  possible  phase  of  social 
failure  and  inmates  of  all  types  of  charitable  and  cor- 
rectional institutions.  Society  must  thus  work  for  the 
elimination  of  the  unfit  and  rehabilitation  of  those  not 
too  dangerously  handicapped  and  at  environmental  levels 
at  which  they  can  adjust  themselves. 

Of  the  dependents  and  economic  failures — all  sup- 
ported wholly  at  the  expense  of  the  country,  approxi- 
mately 50  per  cent  were  foreign  born,  and  this  is  one  of 
the  up-State  counties  with  a  foreign  population  much 
less  than  that  of  New  York  County  or  counties  adjacent 
to  the  latter. 

The  entire  number  of  poor  persons  supported  and 
relieved  in  the  entire  State  of  New  York  during  the 
year  1916-1917  was  636,565,  of  which  545,605  were  men 
and  90,860  were  women,  or  6.5  per  cent  of  a  total  State 
population  of  9,689,744  at  that  time. 

The  above  investigation  resulted  in  drawing  the  fol- 
lowing conclusions  as  to  the  ultimate  causes  of  depen- 
dency— in  such  individuals  there  are  hereditary  recessive 
characters  which  become  dominant  in  their  biological 
make-up,  influenced  by  prenatal  and  postnatal  environ- 
mental stresses — processes  producing  various  types  of 
organ  weakness  and  developmental  defects  and  which 
burden  the  individual  and  through  him  the  community, 
making  for  subnormal  citizens  unable  to  achieve  their 
ambitions  or  even  carry  on  their  ordinary  life  work  in 
an  adequate  and  efficient  manner — thus  environmental 
and  individualistic  factors  must  be  considered  in  ques- 
tions of  economic  liability.  The  more  complex  the  civ- 
ilization the  greater  and  ever  increasing  effort  must  be 
exerted  on  the  part  of  the  individual  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  the  situation  in  hand  and  the  reaction 
efforts  of  the  individual  as  a  social  unit  determines  his 
conduct  in  the  body  politic. 

The  determination  to  do  certain  things,  which  may  or 

23 


may  not  be  of  social  value,  springs  from  mental  trends 
linked  to  many  associations,  conscious  or  subconscious, 
and  if  the  latter  the  individual  may  be  unaware,  and 
thus  not  fully  responsible  to  that  extent. 

This  brings  us  to  the  "ultimate  behavioristic  quotient" 
which  is  a  resultant  of  the  many  factors  acting  in  time 
and  augmenting,  deflecting  or  coloring  the  main  trends 
of  the  personality,  all  of  which,  lead  back  to  the  primal 
instinctive  strivings  found  in  every  human  being.  The 
adequacy  or  inadequacy  with  which  the  personality  is 
enabled  to  respond  to  the  imperative  demands  of  reality 
depends  upon  the  factors  derived  from  the  heredity  and 
environment  of  that  particular  individual. 

With  a  well-balanced  biological  intercorrelation  of  all 
organs  and  functions  we  have  adequate  and  wholesome 
physical  and  mental  reactions  with  behavior  useful  to 
society — in  other  words  a  fully  normal  individual — such 
ability  to  react  adequately  under  stimulus  depends  upon 
organ  integrity — of  all  organs — thus  normal  or  abnormal 
behavior  is  indicative  of  adequate  or  inadequate  organ 
reactions.  This  proper  and  adequate  adjustment  of  the 
whole  human  organism  grows  more  and  more  difficult 
with  the  ever  increasing  complexities  of  civilization. 
Failure  to  receive  adequate  satisfaction  out  of  life  pro- 
motes desires  and  imperfect  compensatory  reactions  in 
seeking  an  outlet  for  these  wish  trends,  with  resulting 
cases  of  social  inadequacy,  psychosis  and  allied  mental 
states  on  the  one  hand  and  mental  defect  and  delin- 
quency and  dependency  on  the  other. 

Our  fundamental  instincts  receive  their  primal  direc- 
tion for  good  or  evil  from  the  presence  of  or  lack  of 
determiners  in  unit  characters  from  the  ancestral  germ 
plasm.  We  must  therefore  search  out  the  facts  of  hered- 
ity, constitutional  make-up  and  environmental  stress, 
which  will  determine  the  characteristics  of  their  reac- 
tions to  environment  in  the  terms  of  behavior.  The 
mentally,  defective,  psychotic,  epileptic,  delinquent  and 
dependent  instead  of  being  thought  of  as  insane,  feeble- 
minded, sick,  pauper  or  criminal,  should  be  thought  of 
as  human  beings  with  an  inadequate  biological  mechan- 
ism which  is  unable  to  exhibit  adequate  symptom  beha- 
vior or  conduct  under  the  usual  conditions  of  their 
environment  and  thereby  draw  attention  to  their  need 
for  scientific  medical  and  social  help  and  enlightenment. 
Let  intellectual  misfits  therefore  be  measured  by  intelli- 

24 


gence  tests  and  placed  in  that  groove  of  society  where 
they  will  ''fit"  the  best,  determine  their  capability  and 
develop  their  potential  capacity  to  the  limit  of  develop- 
mental possibilities.  Select  a  vocation  best  fitted  to  their 
capacity  as  above  determined.  This  may  mean  institu- 
tional supervision,  community  life  with  supervision  by 
social  workers  or  independent  economic  existence. 

The  lesson  to  be  derived  from  these  conclusions  is 
that  we  should  recognize  the  tremendous  importance  of 
the  careful  and  accurate  examination  and  diagnosis  of 
all  prospective  immigrants  and  only  admit  those  who 
will  undoubtedly  become  economic  units  of  value  to  the 
Nation. 

A  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body  is  axiomatic  and  we 
have  seen  from  the  many  statistics  thus  far  presented 
that  a  large  proportion  of  aliens  who  have  succeeded  in 
entering  our  portals  do  not  possess  these  qualifications 
in  spite  of  the  care  thus  far  observed  in  their  admit- 
tance. Can  we  further  safeguard  ourselves  and  if  so, 
by  what  additional  means? 

Properly  selected  and  carefully  conducted  group  in- 
telligence tests  by  competent  and  experienced  alienists 
and  psychologists  will  certainly  further  limit  the  entrance 
of  defectives,  who  become  such  a  tremendous  economic 
burden  to  our  already  overtaxed  and  complex  social 
order.  Furthermore  we  must  demand  a  higher  standard 
of  admission  both  mentally  and  physically. 

Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan,  Chancellor  Emeritus  of  Le- 
land  Stanford,  Jr.,  University,  has  stated  that  a  good  cit- 
izen is  one  who  adequately  cares  for  himself  and  his  fam- 
ily in  the  environment  into  which  he  has  successfully 
adjusted  and  furthermore  contributes  something  addi- 
tional of  constructive  value  to  the  common  weal.  Let  us 
make  this  the  standard  of  admission  for  every  alien,  and 
if  after  admission,  it  is  found  that  he  cannot  live  up  to 
this  standard,  deport  him,  no  matter  how  many  years 
have  elapsed  since  his  admission. 

In  order  to  accomplish  this  result  what  can  we  do  in 
addition  to  the  methods  now  in  effect?  Firstly,  we  can 
insist  on  an  adequate  appropriation  and  a  larger  per- 
sonnel than  at  present  for  carrying  on  the  work,  so  that 
more  rigid  and  careful  examination  can  be  carried  out ; 
secondly,  we  can  insist  that  field  and  research  workers 
go  to  all  the  countries  from  which  aliens  come  to  our 
shores  and  make  first  hand  and  exhaustive  researches 
as  to  the  conditions  there  existing  and  the  quality  of 

25 


prospective  immigrants  seeking  admission  to  our  shores, 
thirdly,  experienced  investigators  should  be  kept  at  the 
points  of  foreign  embarkation  and  others  accompany 
them  across  the  ocean  in  order  to  further  study  and 
report  upon  these  prospective  alien  entrants ;  and  finally 
and  of  the  greatest  importance,  carefully  planned  and 
suitable  intelligence  tests  should  be  given  to  every  child 
above  3  years  of  age  and  every  man  and  woman  of 
whatever  age  that  succeeds  in  passing  all  the  other  re- 
quirements at  either  the  point  of  embarkation  or  point 
cf  admission  to  our  country,  preferably  at  the  former. 

Examinations  should  be  repeated  after  definite  inter- 
vals should  they  be  indicated,  through  proper  registra- 
tion. 

Would  this  cost  money?  Unquestionably  a  consider- 
able sum,  but  a  mere  fraction  as  compared  to  the  eco- 
nomic saving  in  money,  higher  social  efficiency,  dimin- 
ished crime,  delinquency,  physical  and  mental  disease, 
dependency  and,  above  all,  hereditary  transmission  of 
mental  inferiority. 

Intelligence  tests  so  applied  could  well  be  considered  as 
an  intellectual  insurance  far  more  valuable  to  the  com- 
munity than  life,  accident,  health  or  fire  insurance. 

Some  may  well  ask — what  is  intelligence,  of  which  so 
many  statements  have  been  made  up  to  the  present  time 
in  this  paper  and  how  can  we  measure  it  with  any 
degree  of  accuracy?  This  is  a  most  pertinent  question 
and  should  be  answered. 

Meumann  defines  intelligence,  from  the  psychological 
viewpoint,  as  the  power  of  independent  and  creative 
elaboration  of  new  products  out  of  material  supplied  by 
memory  and  the  senses,  and  from  a  practical  point  of 
view  involving  ability  to  avoid  errors,  to  surmount  diffi- 
culties and  to  adjust  to  environment. 

Stern  defines  intelligence  as  general  capacity  of  an 
individual  consciously  to  adjust  his  thinking  to  new  re- 
quirements— it  is  general  adaptability  to  new  problems 
and  conditions  of  life. 

Ebbinghaus  states:  "Intellectual  ability  consists  in 
elaboration  of  a  whole  into  its  worth  and  meaning  by 
means  of  many-sided  combination,  correction  and  com- 
pletion of  numerous  kindred  associations — it  is  a  com- 
bination activity." 

To  simplify  the  definition  and  reduce  it  to  its  lowest 
terms  we  might  define  intelligence  as  the  mental  capacity 
to  adjust  satisfactorily  to  the  ever-changing  environment 

26 


of  the  individual  at  his  level — which  means  to  either  a 
greater  average  or  lesser  degree  than  that  of  the  group 
co  which  each  particular  individual  belongs  as  a  member 
of  the  human  family— if  to  a  greater  degree  that  indi- 
vidual is  of  superior  intelligence,  if  to  the  average  de- 
gree the  individual  is  of  normal  intelligence,  and  if  to 
a  lesser  degree  that  individual  is  of  an  inferior  intelli- 
gence up  to  complete  absence  of  intelligence  or  mental 
vacuity. 

Many  psychologists  have  spent  years  in  examining 
thousands  of  individuals  of  all  nationalities,  of  every 
age,  and  of  every  imaginable  social  condition  and  occu- 
pation and  from  the  enormous  mass  of  data  thus  ob- 
tained it  has  been  found  that  the  average  individual 
at  any  age  is  capable  of  responding  to  certain  carefully 
selected  tests.  These  tests  have  been  arranged  in  defin- 
ite groups'  for  each  year,  beginning  at  the  age  of  3  years 
and  extending  up  to  the  average  and  superior  adult. 
By  many  thousands  of  trials  it  has  been  found,  for  in- 
stance, that  a  child  of  10  years  of  age  can  only  answer 
the  questions  and  solve  the  problems  that  the  average 
8-year-old  child  can  readily  solve,  that  child  has  a  mental 
age  of  only  8  years,  although  its  chronological  age  is  10 
years,  and  as  the  so-called  intelligence  quotient,  or  ratio 
of  mental  age  to  chronological  age  is  based  on  100,  or 
normal,  this  particular  child  measures  8/10  of  normal 
and  has  art  intelligence  quotient  of  only  80  instead  of  the 
100  it  should  have  if  it  passed  the  tests  for  the  average 
io-year-old  child. 

For  many  years,  two  French  psychologists  worked  on 
this  problem  and  published  a  provisional  scale  in  1905. 
This  was  modified  and  improved  upon  and  republished 
as  the  Simon-Binet  Intelligence  Scale  in  1908  and  again, 
as  further  modified  in  1911.  In  1916,  the  Stanford  Re- 
vision of  the  Simon-Binet  Scale  was  presented  and  with 
some  further  modifications  is  at  present  in  general  use. 
It  was  found,  however,  during  our  late  world  war  that 
other  tests,  but  along  the  same  lines,  were  better  adapted 
for  the  rapid  examination  of  larger  or  smaller  groups, 
especially  of  illiterates  who  required  special  tests,  and 
as  a  result,  the  so-called  Army  Alpha  and  Beta  Tests 
were  developed  and  employed  for  this  particular  purpose, 
the  Beta  Tests  for  the  illiterates.  In  addition  to  these 
tests  there  are  various  other  special  tests,  especially 
adapted  for  particular  conditions  as  the  pantomine, 
maze,  puzzle,  mechanical  and  performance  tests. 

27 


For  vocational  work,  for  instance,  many  firms  em- 
ploying large  numbers  have  found  it  of  the  greatest  eco- 
nomic value  to  have  a  trained  and  experienced  psychol- 
ogist or  staff  of  psychologists  examine  every  applicant 
for  a  position  and  as  a  result  of  these  special  intelligence 
tests  the  applicant  is  either  rejected  as  unsuitable  mate- 
rial, or  if  accepted,  placed  in  that  position  of  greatest 
economic  value  to  the  firm.  Many  of  these  organiza- 
tions have  formed  schools  for  the  rapid  training  of  those 
who  qualify  under  these  tests.  Dr.  C.  S.  Yoakum,  who 
with  Dr.  Yerkes,  had  charge  of  the  United  States  Army 
Intelligence  Testing  during  the  world  war,  and  who  col- 
laborated with  the  latter  in  a  book  entitled  "Army  Intel- 
ligence Tests,"  has  succeeded  in  building  up  a  series  of 
tests  by  means  of  which  men  can  be  selected  for  insur- 
ance work  almost  without  an  error.  R.  H.  Macy  &  Co., 
in  New  York  City,  have  a  well-equipped  psychological 
testing  plant.  The  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Co. 
employs  intelligence  tests  in  the  selection  of  its  office 
force.  There  are  some  58  concerns  that  are  or  have 
used  intelligence  tests  in  the  selection  of  their  personnel 
and  the  number  is  rapidly  increasing. 

In  some  factory  and  other  operations  the  moron  can 
perform  certain  parts  of  the  work  as  well  as  individuals 
of  higher  intelligence  and  in  some  of  the  simpler  opera- 
tions at  the  factory  of  the  B.  F.  Goodrich  Co.,  at  Akron, 
Ohio,  manufacturers  of  automobile  tires,  morons  were 
preferred  for  certain  parts  of  the  work  because  they 
were  more  amenable  to  discipline  and  remain  better 
contented  with  working  conditions. 

The  above  facts  show  again  the  great  economic  value 
of  intelligence  tests  and  impress  upon  us  the  lesson — do 
not  put  a  $10,000  man  on  a  $1,000  job,  or  vice  versa — 
in  other  words,  get  the  level  of  intelligence  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  put  him  at  construction  work  on  that  level 
of  environment. 

Intelligence  tests  can  thus  be  considered  as  intellectual 
measuring  rods-  for  the  determination  of  the  mental  ca- 
pacity and  aptitudes  of  the  individual  examined,  just 
as  the  tape  measure  gives  the  size  and  probable  capacity 
of  the  various  parts  of  the  body  for  physical  exertion. 

This  rule  should  be  applied  in  the  employment  of  in- 
telligence tests  in  the  case  of  the  alien — if  he  enters  as 
a  laborer  give  him  an  intelligence  test  a  little  higher 
than  that  for  a  similar  laborer  now  in  our  country,  for 
it  most  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  entering  alien  is  greatly 

28 


handicapped  by  limited  knowledge  of  our  language,  cus- 
toms, laws  and  methods  of  doing  things;  and  further- 
more, he  has  hereditary  trends  and  environmental  ac- 
quirements from  the  country  in  which  he  and  his  ances- 
tors were  born,  many  of  which  must  be  modified. 

All  varieties  of  tests  for  all  varieties  of  conditions 
should  be  carefully  tried  out  and  any  necessary  modifi- 
cations made  at  any  time,  should  occasion  demand,  to 
the  end  of  carrying  on  the  work  at  the  most  effective 
and  efficient  level. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  employment  of 
intelligence  tests  as  suggested  would  simply  be  an  ad- 
junct to  all  the  other  examinations  now  conducted. 
These  latter  should  be  made  more  rigid  and  carried  out 
much  more  thoroughly  than  the  present  personnel  and 
appropriation  will  permit.  That  this  adjunct  would  be 
of  the  greatest  value  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Fur- 
thermore, it  is  entirely  practical.  With  sufficient  appro- 
priation, adequate  accomodations  and  a  suitable  staff  of 
highly  trained  psychiatrists,  psychologists  and  social 
workers,  invaluable  economic  results  could  be  obtained 
and  this  would  be  economic  national  insurance  of  the 
highest  order. 

Dr.  C.  E.  Seashore,  Chairman,  Division  of  Anthropol- 
ogy and  psychology  of  the  National  Research  Council, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  in  a  recent  communication  addressed 
to  me,  made  the  following  statement:  "As  to  the  em- 
ployment of  intelligence  tests  in  the  control  of  immigra- 
tion, I  beg  to  say  that  I  consider  this  a  matter  of  great 
moment  at  the  present  time.  If  we  can  only  admit  a 
small  number  of  immigrants,  why  should  we  not  exer- 
cise some  judgment  in  selecting  for  admission.  Enough 
work  in  that  type  of  service  has  been  done  in  psychology 
now  to  make  it  a  comparatively  easy  matter  for  us 
to  design  such  procedures  should  the  government  be 
willing  to  use  them.  I  think,  as  a  physician,  you  will 
realize  that  emotional  stability,  moral  fitness,  health  and 
social  attitude  are  as  important  as  intelligence." 

I  am  entirely  in  accord  with  Dr.  Seashore's  views  and 
believe  that  our  tests  should  be  so  developed  as  to  deter- 
mine these  latter  attributes  as  well,  and  that  such  can 
be  done. 

For  the  work  suggested,  a  director  with  the  neces- 
sary number  "of  assistants,  a  sufficient  number  of  highly 
educated  and  trained  psychologists  to  give  suitable  group 
tests  and  occasional  individual  tests  where  indicated,  so- 

29 


cial  workers  to  determine  hereditary  and  environmental 
conditions  and  a  sufficient  clerical  staff,  a  record  room, 
special  research  bureau — these  are  some  of  the  agencies 
by  which  in  time  and  by  rigid  application  the  quality  of 
our  alien  citizenship  could  be  immensely  improved  at 
an  economic  saving  of  many  billions  of  dollars  to  our 
Government. 

In  this  period  of  world  reconstruction,  lessened  mental 
and  physical  resistance,  disorder,  discontent,  increase  in 
insanity,  crime,  delinquency  and  dependency — this  period 
above  all  is  the  psychological  moment  in  which  our  Gov- 
ernment should  act  most  vigorously  and  effectively  along 
these  lines. 

For  such  intelligence  insurance  the  cost  would  be  a 
mere  bagatelle  as  compared  to  the  vast  saving  in  the 
form  of  higher  and  better  citizenship  and  in  diminished 
billions  of  cost  for  deficiency  and  dependency  and  the 
increased  billions  added  to  our  assets  in  higher  and  bet- 
ter productivity. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  make  grateful  acknowledge- 
ment to  Dr.  Phyllis  Blanchard,  Miss  Flora  M.  Purcell, 
Miss  Elizabeth  E.  Farrell,  Dr.  Smith  Ely  Jelliffe,  Dr. 
Menas  S.  Gregory,  Dr.  Stephen  P.  Jewett,  Dr.  Irwin  J. 
Sands,  Dr.  W.  C.  Billings,  Dr.  H.  Valentine  Wildman, 
Jr.,  Dr.  John  S.  Richards,  Dr.  H.  M.  Johnson,  Dr.  John 
B.  Watson,  Dr.  Wm.  Healy,  Dr.  Eliot  Frost,  Dr.  Wal- 
ter Hill  Scott,  Dr.  L.  L.  Thurstone,  Dr.  S.  D.  Porteus, 
Dr.  C.  E.  Seashore,  Dr.  Harold  C.  Bingham,  Dr.  Robert 
H.  Gault,  and  Dr.  J.  L.  Stenquist — all  well-known  spe- 
cialists and  research  workers  along  these  lines — for  valu- 
able suggestions  and  data  employed  in  the  preparation 
of  this  paper. 

142  West  86th  St. 

Discussion. 

Phyllis  Blanchard,  Ph.D.,  Resident  Phychologist,  Bellevue 
Hospital :  When  we  think  of  the  practical  side  of  putting  the 
intelligence  test  scheme  into  effect,  there  are  several  things  that 
come  to  mind.  I  am  concerned  not  only  as  to  the  problem  of 
excluding  the  feeble  minded,  but  as  to  the  probability  of  many 
immigrants  being  sent  back  who  are  not  actually  feeble  minded. 
There  are  many  cases  in  which,  without  the  aid  of  thoroughly 
trained  examiners,  mistakes  are  made.  We  see  that  every  day 
at  Bellevue.  We  have  cases  where,  because  the  examiners  have 
not  had  sufficient  experience  or  training,  individuals  have  been 
sent  to  Randalls  Island  before  being  sent  back  to  us  for  ob- 
servation, and  we  find  them  normal;  sometim*  during  the  period 
before  commitment,  they  were  in  a  psychotic  or  emotional  state 
which  rendered  them  temporarily  unable  to  reason  intelligently, 
and  they  were  arbitrarily  pronounced  feeble  minded  and  com- 

30 


mittecl.  I  recall  two  cases  recently  sent  to  us,  both  of  whom 
Ellis  Island  was  trying  to  deport  on  the  ground  of  feeble  mind- 
edness.  One  was  a  woman  who  was  in  the  post-syphilitic  condi- 
tion of  toxemia.  As  a  rule  the  intelligence  is  not  impaired  in 
these  cases,  but  the  faculties  of  attention  and  association  are 
impaired  and  that  gives  the  impression  of  feeble  mindedness. 
Another  was  a  girl  deaf  and  dumb,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
this  would  handicap  the  examiners  in  trying  to  establish  the 
mental  status  by  questions  the  suspect  is  unable  to  understand. 
At  Bellevue  we  use  the  performance  tests  by  which  the  lan- 
guage difficulty  is  overcome.  It  is  much  like  puzzles  and  cer- 
tain acts  test  the  memory  and  judgment.  This  girl  did  these 
very  well.  Although  she  had  only  been  in  this  country  a  year 
she  understood  and  could  read  English  sufficiently  so  that  it 
was  not  necessary  to  give  her  instructions  in  pantomine,  which 
certainly  showed  that  she  was  not  feeble  minded;  nevertheless, 
she  was  being  considered  for  deportation  on  this  ground. 

Another  matter  for  thought  is  just  where  we  draw  the 
line  in  barring  out  an  immigrant,  what  de  we  require  when 
we  demand  the  qualities  that  will  make  for  citizenship.  Many 
of  the  so  called  radicals  are  not  feeble  minded,  and  high  grade 
morons  might  fit  into  our  social  scheme  beautifully  for  they 
are  faithful  workers,  will  do  work  that  others  will  not  do,  and 
are  not  so  apt  to  be  discontented,  engage  in  strikes,  etc.,  al- 
though it  must  be  admitted  they  are  very  susceptible  to  sug- 
gestion and  would  follow  where  others  led.  It  is  my  opinion, 
regarding  group  tests,  that  they  would  be  only  partially  suc- 
cessful in  this  problem.  To  be  sure,  the  group  tests  could  be 
used  in  the  selection  of  those  undoubtedly  above  par,  but  for 
the  others  individual  tests  would  have  to  be  used  to  judge 
their  real  mental  status  because  of  their  emotional  condition. 
The  I.  Q.  varies  from  10  to  20  points  according  to  the  emotion- 
al state  of  the  individual  examined.  Another  practical  con- 
cideration  is  whether  we  could  educate  the  public  to  see  the 
necessity  of  appropriating  a  sum  sufficient  to  carry  on  this  work 
that  Dr.  Lawrence  proposes  which  would  undoubtedly  be  valu- 
able if  we  could  make  them  see  the  practicability  of  it. 

Dr.  Smith  Ely  Jelliffe:  The  most  promising  thing,  as  I  think 
over  the  various  topics  brought  to  our  attention,  is  that  there 
is  so  much  interest  in  the  situation, — that  brains  are  being 
counted  as  worth  something.  You  all  know  how  difficult  it 
was  for  a  man  with  flat  feet  to  get  into  the  army,  but  a  man 
with  a  flat  brain  had  no  difficulty  at  all.  How  are  we  going 
to  keep  the  flat  brains  out?  I  pause  somewhat  when  I  recall 
what  Dr.  Lawrence  said  (I  think  these  figures  are  his)  :  that 
in  750,000  aspirants  for  the  United  States  Army  50  per  cent, 
were  below  the  mental  age  of  12  years.  It  does  not  seem  to 
me  that  the  problem  is,  in  view  of  this,  so  much  how  to 
keep  out  the  feeble  minded  as  it  is  what  to  do  with  those 
who  are  here.  If  our  Secretary  of  State  struck  the  right 
note  in  proposing  a  naval  vacation,  I  think  that  vote  to  bring 
about  a  more  stringent  type  of  immigrant  vacation  might  be 
taken  so  that  we  could  catch  up  with  these  twelve  year  old 
people,  and  we  could  devote  our  efforts  to  educate  those  we 
have  at  home  and  not  spend  so  much  time  in  sifting  out  new 
arrivals. 

I  think  that  some  of  Dr.  Lawrence's  suggestions  were  rather 
pertinent.  It  seems  to  be  the  problem  of  the  feeble  minded  is 
one  of  the  largest  civilizaton  has  to  meet.  Those  of  you  who 

31 


see  me  to-day  mght  never  guess  that  I  was  once  a  slim  .sapling, 
but  it  was  so,  and  at  that  time  running  was  such  a  favorite 
sport  of  mine  that  I  was  in  danger  of  indulging  in  it  to  the 
extent  of  running  off  my  own  feet.  Civilization  is  running  off 
its  own  feet.  Undoubtedly  the  machine  has  outrun  the  intelli- 
gence necessary  to  direct  it.  Though  we  talk  of  intelligence,  we 
have  not  enough  intelligence  to  run  the  machine  and  it  is  rac- 
ing now  to  collapse.  So  one  bite  at  the  cherry  would  not  be 
sufficient  to  eliminate  some  of  the  factors. 

Certain  features  interested  me  in  the  way  of  practical  is- 
sues. Any  of  you  who  have  crossed  the  ocean  in  recent 
years  know  with  what  difficulty  one  approaches  the  time  of 
landing  and  how  everything  that  could  have  been  distributed 
over  the  eight  or  nine  days  of  the  voyage  has  to  be  done  in 
the  last  two  or  three  hours.  It  is  the  same  thing  in  passing 
through  many  immigrants  in  a  few  moments  on  landing  here; 
whereas,  carefully  distributed  work  on  the  other  side  and  in 
the  ports  of  exit  where  there  are  more  adequate  ways  of 
handling  the  problem  would  prevent  the  necessity  for  this.  It 
always  seems  that  we  are  better  able  to  bring  up  the  difficul- 
ties and  fallacies  in  discussing  a  problem  than  we  are  to  offer 
constructive  arguments. 

Mr.  J.  L.  Stenquist:  We  have  a  situation  here  with  two  as- 
pects; first,  is  it  desirable  to  take  some  action  in  this  matter. 
It  seems  to  me  it  is.  The  other  phase  is,  how  well  can  we  do 
this  sifting  process.  Working  on  this  front — and  I  am  somewhat 
interested  in  that, — there  are  a  few  general  statements  that 
can  be  made.  First  of  all  we  think  at  first  of  the  enormous 
number,  and  of  the  magnitude  of  the  thing.  The  people  of  whom 
we  are  speaking  amount  to  10  per  cent.,  so  that  out  of  every 
hundred  we  would  have  from  five  to  ten  people  with  whom 
we  are  seriously  concerned.  For  that  reason  it  seems  to  me 
practicable  to  set  up  a  rapid  working  machine  to  sift  all  these 
people  quickly  and  easily,  and  at  comparatively  small  expense, 
and  so  differentiate  the  questionable  cases  and  turn  these  over 
to  the  various  professions,  and  there  is  no  question  but  in  this 
way  we  could  do  much  more  than  we  are  doing  now.  Even 
if  a  few  mistakes  were  made,  the  degree  of  progress  would  be 
so  great  that  we  could  overlook  the  possibilities  of  mistakes. 
I  would  also  urge  the  point  made  by  Dr.  Blanchard  of  the 
necessity  for  the  highest  talent,  the  highest  training  for  these 
examiners.  The  one  outstanding  answef  to  that  troublesome 
point  is,  of  course,  the  present  alternative ;  whaj  do  we  do 
now  We  look  at  them  for  one  minute  and  determine  their 
mental  status  and  the  physician  is  asked  to  determine  their 
physical  status  in  the  same  number  of  seconds.  Almost  any- 
thing would  be  an  improvement  over  that.  The  figures  of 
Dr.  Lawrence  present  a  formidable  array  of  evidence  to  show 
the  tremendous  importance  of  this  type  of  thing. 

Dr.  Antonio  Stella:  I  beg  permission  to  take  exception  to 
some  of  the  statements  made  bv  Dr.  Lawrence.  1  was  shocked 
at  some  of  his  utterances  regarding  Italians.  I  am  not  speaking 
from  a  biased  point  of  view,  but  there  are  some  impressions 
he  may  have  made  that  ought  to  be  corrected.  He  practically 
made  the  Italian  appear  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  criminals 
and  defectives;  he  spoke  of  the  Italians  as  being  in  the  front 
line  in  the  percentages  of  the  vagrants  and  dependents.  If  1 
remember  correctly  from  a  report  of  the  Department  of  Chari- 

32 


tics,  there  are  fewer  Italians  in  the  poor  house  than  any  other 
nationality.  On  Wards  Island  they  occupy  the  twelfth  line. 
Regarding  prostitutes,  it  has  been  the  boast  of  our  Police 
Commissioner  that  with  an  Italian  population  of  700,000  there 
are  no  Italian  prostitutes,  there  is  not  a  woman  on  the  street 
in  this  city,  except  in  Mulberry  Street,  where  there  are  five 
or  six  listed  as  such  in  the  most  crowded  Italian  quarter 
of  the  city.  When  we  think  of  the  great  temptation  the  young 
Italian  girl,  living  in  poverty,  working  in  factories  for  long 
hours  and  small  pay,  is  exposted  to,  this  is  a  remarkable  record. 
In  regard  to  dependency,  there  never  was  an  Italian  found  in 
the  bread  line  that  was  supplied  with  food  in  the  old  days  by 
Fleischman's  bakery.  If  they  are  unemployed  they  take  the 
first  steamer  home  to  Italy.  They  are  really  birds  of  passage 
and  when  work  stops  they  fly  away.  They  are  doubly  selected. 
When  an  Italian  decides  to  come  to  this  country  it  takes 
moral  and  physical  courage.  They  are  examined  at  the  port 
of  embarkation  by  an  American  physician  and  re-examined  at 
Ellis  Island,  and  they  are  an  extremely  healthy  lot  of  people. 
They  are  exposed  to  dangerous  occupations  so  that  many  con- 
tract tuberculosis,  but  they  go  home  to  die.  It  is  the  same 
with  syphilis ;  there  is  very  little  venereal  disease  among 
Italian  immigrants,  and  this  is  shown  by  the  fecundity  of  the 
Italian  women.  But  they  do  acquire  syphilis  in  this  country. 
The  delinquency  of  Italian  children  is  the  result  of  their  living 
in  the  slums  in  the  most  congested  sections  of  the  city.  Also, 
the  public  school  system,  wonderful  as  it  is  in  many  aspects, 
is  responsible  for  the  loss  of  authority  in  the  parents.  They 
learn  things  at  school  of  which  their  parents  are  ignorant  and 
come  to  regard  them  as  inferior  and  altogether  fluot  their  ef- 
forts to  train  them  as  the  parents  themselves  were  trained 
in  habits  and  thoughts  of  decent  living.  That  is  what  makes 
them  criminals,  and  it  is  the  second  generation,  the  children 
born  and  brought  up  in  this  country,  who  constitute  the  crim- 
inal element  among  the  Italians.  Regarding  the  intelligence 
of  the  Italians,  I  was  surprised  to  hear  that  they  have  been 
listed  below  the  negroes.  Dr.  Maxwell  always  said  that  the 
school  reports  showed  the  Italian  children  the  most  promising 
of  any  race.  It  would  be  possible  for  a  race  with  such  a 
history  of  greatness  to  so  degenerate  as  to  breed  children  not 
proficient  in  the  public  schools. 

We  ought  really  to  be  most  grateful  to  Dr.  Blanchard  for 
her  observations  on  the  fact  that  the  emotions  bring  about  a 
condition  in  Italians  which  makes  them  appear  stupid.  I  have 
seen  some  who  had  been  classified  as  feeble  minded  who  had 
at  the  time  of  examination  been  undergoing  great  emotional 
crises.  My  attention  was  recently  directed  to  the  case  of  a 
woman  wo  had  raised  a  family  of  seven  children  and  brought 
them  to  this  strange  country;  she  refused  food  when  one  of 
her  children  has  been  separated  from  her  and  sent  to  a  hos- 
pital for  traucoma.  This  woman  was  suspected  of  mental  in- 
stability and  was  questioned,  the  questions  containing  the  form 
the  suspicion  took.  She  was  asked,  "Are  you  afraid  to  eat 
because  you  believe  the  food  is  poisoned?"  She  replied, 
"Madonna  mia,  I  cannot  eat,"  and  repeated  "Madonna  mia!" 
a  number  of  times.  Then  they  asked  her  did  she  hear  voices, 
did  she  believe  she  was  talking  with  God,  and  her  reply,  in  my 

33 


opinion,  expressed  more  sense  than  they  exhibited;  she  an- 
swered that  she  regarded  herself  unworthy  to  talk  with  God. 
1  believe  the  United  State  has  the  right  to  keep  away  all 
immigrants,  but  when  it  comes  to  applying  these  tests  in  the 
most  unschematic  way  without  consideration  for  temporary 
psychotic  states,  I  feel  that  great  injustice  is  often  done.  I 
believe  these  examinations  should  be  conducted  at  the  port 
of  embarkation  in  a  systematic  way  and  all  this  misery  and 
tragedy  could  then  be  avoided.  Over  there,  divided  among 
many  ports,  they  would  have  months,  if  necessary,  for  obser- 
vation, and  in  that  way  the  problem  here  would  be  eliminated. 
I  think  Dr.  Lawrence  would  give  an  impression  more  con- 
sistent with  the  real  facts,  and  one  much  more  fair  to  the 
Italian  race  if  the  percentages  were  given  with  the  population 
to  give  the  ratio  with  which  the  percentage  is  arrived  at. 

Dr.  G.  Alfred  Lawrence :  Intelligence,  of  course,  renders  one 
able  to  make  good  use  of  education  in  successfully  adjusting  to 
the  environment.  In  answer  to  Dr.  Stella,  I  hasten  to  state  that 
I  had  no  wish  to  make  any  invidious1  comparisons  between  the 
people  of  different  nationalities;  the  statistics  I  gave  have  been 
very  carefully  compiled  and  they  are  presented,  not  as  represent- 
ing my  personal  opinions,  but  as  evidence  of  facts  carefully  gath- 
ered together  by  trained  investigators.  We  want  Italians  in  this 
country,  bright  and  intelligent  men,  women  and  children,  the 
best  that  .Italy  can  send  us;  but  we  do  not  want  those  who 
make  up  the  no  inconsiderable  percentage  of  criminals,  and  there 
are  many  of  them  in  this  country  at  this  time.  This  is  no 
reflection  on  the  Italian  people;  it  is  merely  a  statement  of 
facts  as  they  exist  in  this  country  at  present. 

In  regard  to  Dr.  Blanchard's  suggestion,  illustrated  by  the 
cases  of  the  two  women,  one  in  a  post  syphilitic  condition  and 
the  other  deaf  and  dumb,  I  do  not  think  any  injustice  would 
have  been  done  had  they  been  excluded.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  make  some  of  these  tests.  Look  at  those  three  or  four 
families  I  quoted;  the  Jukes  cost  New  York  one  million  dol- 
lars in  thirty  years,  and  another  alien  half  a  million.  We  have 
enuogh  morons  in  this  country  already  to  do  all  the  work  they 
are  capable  of  doing,  and  we  do  not  need  any  more.  We  should 
exclude  any  element  that  cannot  be  of  economic  and  productive 
value  in  this  country.  Probably  50  per  cent,  of  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States  are  of  the  mental  status  of  12  years  or 
under,  so  we  have  enough  subnormality  in  the  country.  We 
are  now  admitting  only  3  per  cent,  of  any  nation  according  to 
the  percentage  of  the  population  here  of  that  country ;  why 
not  have  this  3  per  cent,  of  the  best  instead  of  the  worst? 
We  can  do  that  by  these  intelligent  tests.  We  can  use  gen- 
eral group  tests  and  use  such  tests  as  a  sieve  to  detect  the  mark- 
edly defective,  and  by  intensive  study  of  these,  few  cases  of  in- 
justice will  occur.  Many  insane  and  many  markedly  defective 
get  in  at  the  present  time.  Some  cases  certified  for  deporta- 
tion have  been  examined  and  re-examined,  resulting  each  time 
in  the  statement  being  made  that  they  were  defective,  and  yet 
orders  have  come  from  Washington  that  they  be  retained  in 
this  country.  This,  of  course,  is  due  to  political  pull,  and 
cases  of  that  kind  should  be  proven,  and  this  can  only  be  done 
by  arousing  public  sentiment.  As  far  as  immigrant  defectives 
are  concerned  we  should  adopt  the  slogan,  "They  shall  not  pass." 

34 


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